New practice facility for Kentucky basketball is 'definitely in the working stages'

Remember John Calipari‘s urgent call for a new practice facility during Kentucky’s summer trip to the Bahamas back in 2022? Yes, that conversation — the “basketball school” conversation that started a civil war in Lexington.

At the time, Coach Cal said the current facilities did not meet the ‘gold standard’ of Kentucky basketball.

“It has to be bigger and not leak like the one we’ve got. But it’s gotta be bigger because that’s what they are now. People should come in and see this and say, ‘Whoa,'” Calipari said. “But this is Kentucky Basketball. The gold standard in the country. This university, this state, basketball. So now, it’s time to say, this is what we want to do. I think again, yeah, I’ll push the needle. Let’s go.”

Mitch Barnhart immediately responded that Calipari’s comments at the time created ‘an unproductive and unfortunate situation’ in terms of singling out Kentucky as a basketball school in his pitch for a new practice gym. He later added that he never turned down Coach Cal’s request — only made clear that a building couldn’t pop up at his earliest convenience.

“These are not snap your fingers things and that’s what has been explained,” Barnhart told KSR in January of 2023. “It wasn’t, ‘no.’ It was, ‘Here’s the process.’ … Those processes in construction, just for everyone’s information, are 18- to 24-month processes.”

Not only was it not a ‘no,’ Barnhart confirmed in that same sit-down with KSR he had his eyes on a gym for the men’s basketball program.

“We’ve had conversations about a facility. We would like to have a new facility. There’s no question about that. I get that,” he said. “But at the end of the day, there is a significant process and we’ve explained that to everyone that we have to go through to get that done. … That’s not my DNA to turn away help for capital construction.”

Fast forward to April of 2025, and it appears that process has begun — now under new leadership with Mark Pope taking over as head coach. In fact, they’re well past the point of dreaming about it. It’s now a reality and ‘in the working stages,’ as Pope described it during his call-in radio show Monday evening.

“Yeah, so our administration is always working hard ahead. That is certainly past the just imagining phase,” he said. “Still, there are a bunch of hurdles to cross and priorities that we have to refocus in this really dynamic changing landscape of college athletics. That’s something that is definitely in the working stages.”

Kentucky just saw a $200 million renovation of Rupp Arena. Up next? A new-and-improved Joe Craft Center.